David Cameron and Government waste

The Tory leader said he wants to "revive our society as Margaret Thatcher revived our economy."

Echoing Thatcher's thoughts in 1979 he said "Britain needs good honest housekeeping from the Conservatives".

The Tories have, Mr Cameron claimed, understood that the James government efficiency measures they outlined before the last election did not hit the right note.

He questions whether this wishÂ list of efficiencies had any real positive effect.

James was a comprehensive study into Government waste, an almost line by line detailed audit of all aspects of Whitehall spending.

But during the battle of the airwaves in the 2005 election campaign, one senior Tory told me this morning, the Tories found Labour was talking about the big economic issues while they were having to defend whether they really could achieve relatively small savings in health trusts.

It may even have cost them a seat in Somerset, they argue, as one one of the James savings involved privatising a local government office that played badly locally.

So this time they are talking bigger picture.

Mr Cameron concluded he didn't want to live in a "High tax, uncompetive backwater".